Symbol Six

May 23, 2012Christopher Duda

Symbol Six
Interview by Christoper Duda (SugarBuzzin Daddy)

Deep within the inner circles of the secret society primo circle jerk lay a Bukaki filled creampuff begging to hear more Symbol Six. Moans of this wanton slut with a pronounced lisp could be heard billowing amongst the back room of the seedy strip club. …It went something like this…” Give me your big Kielbasa Taz … I love THIMBLE THIX” (don’t forget the pronounced lisp). To which Taz replies get it right bitch It’s Symbol Six you lisping wanna be Porn Star…Next…

Symbol Six’s contemporaries are now household names- [Gee, I just saw Mike Ness on a Fruit of the Loom commercial (that is a lie)]-i.e.: Social Distortion, TSOL, Agent Orange etc. Do you feel that if Symbol Six didn’t dissolve into an early demise that they would be doing Pepsi commercials, living in mansions and hanging out with porn stars? Any regrets or if you could turn back the hand of time what would you do differently?

Taz: We already hang out with porn stars!

Phil: We’d be huge!

Taz: Bad Religion is more radio friendly than we are. I see us more along the lines of NOFX.

Phil: We would have stayed together, period.

The Angry Samoans sang that “Poshboys cock is on the scene-Three big inches long and mean”. Is there truth to this rumor?

Taz: How do they know?

How important was the early Starwood scene on the development of the band?

Taz: Pinnacle!

Eric: Epic!

Taz: We were mostly going to Hong Kong Gardens but when we would go to Starwood, we would just hang out in the parking lot and get drunk.

Eric: But we did take Phil to the Starwood to see the Weirdos, he was sold on punk rock and Symbol Six after that!

Taz: I remember Johnny Nobody, who was the drummer for Red Kross; he was wearing a kilt, had just shaved his eyebrows off, and had pink hair. He was sitting on the marquee for the Starwood and it said Darby Crash Band and The Chiefs. He rearranged the letters to say Darby Trash She Chief! I think there is a picture of it out there somewhere.

What did band members do after the bands demise?

In 1984, Eric Leach and Taz Rudd formed the short-lived Hollywood sleaze band, Stalin, with Izzy Stradlin – Guns N’ Roses. Shortly after, Eric and Taz along with Brent Muscat – Faster Pussycat, Patrick Muzingo, and Todd Muscat – Decry formed the rock n’ roll punk band Shanghai. Playing all over LA with bands L.A. Guns, Guns N’ Roses, Faster Pussycat, The Joneses, and Flower Leperds. They were spotted by the legendary neon knight of sleaze, Kim Fowley, infamous producer of The Runaways, KISS, Alice Cooper, etc. at the famed The Troubadour. After seeing their performance he asked, “Are you ready to make a record?!” They immediately moved into with Kim Fowley and began writing and recording songs. David Leibert, Alice Cooper’s road manager, was recruited to come in to handle the day to day babysitting chores. Their last show was at The Scream in LA in 1987, with the band disbanding due to many unmentionable factors.

Eric Leach went on to the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, Ca. majoring in Fine Art Illustration.

Taz Rudd was detained by the state of California for 10 years where he had the band Wrecklords consisting of members of Chantee’s (Pipeline), Jim Gordon of Derek and the Dominos. He went on to play in Atoms, Der Stab, Funeral, Flower Leperds, Voodoo Church, Decry, Pirates of Venus, Shanghai, Rock City Angels, and Aces & Eights(formed with Phil George and Evan Shanks) which performed at The Viper Room in August 2009 joined on stage by Slash (musician) and Steven Adler of Guns N’ Roses.

Who in the band is the chronic masturbation expert, the one most likely to take the pimple infested, bad breath, overweight groupie to the tour bus for a good old fashioned shagging?

Taz: We hang out with porn stars but if had to be someone it would be Phil, he is not choosy. Read his bio!

What is the bands drink of choice?

Taz: Patron Silver with a Tecate chaser.

Eric: Yoo-hoo

Evan: It changes. Right now it’s a Manhattan (waxes poetically about different kinds of bourbon)

Taz: Ha Ha, dude? Really?

Are there any bands historically or currently that you have played with that either history has left behind or merely deserve attention? Another Poshboy label mate that rarely gets mentioned is The Stepmothers.

Taz: Well, with the invention of the internet everyone is getting pretty hip to all these bands. The Skulls were great! They definitely had some influence on us. There is this band I played with when I was on tour with Decry called House of Commons from Canada. We had some fucked up cassette in our tour van. We listened to it over and over again. We can’t find them to save our lives. The had such good, classic punk rock soloes that is not really a solo but more just octaves.

Are there plans or offers to play Europe, Japan or for that matter Canada!

Taz: All of the above.

Evan: Oh yeah! We get offers all the time, stay tuned!

Question for Taz-Has Decry played any reunion shows and would there be plans in the future to tour “Falling” across North America?

Taz: There has never been a true Decry reunion but Farrell is playing all the time. People should go see them and support them. We do!

Any memories (not mammary) of alcohol fuelled shows? Hell, it involves a mammary or two it might be a good read-we are all adults here-kind of.

Taz: Oh shit!

Eric: Which one? There are so many!

Evan: The Tiki Bar.

Taz: What’s that?

Eric: The one you were drunk at!

Taz: I must have been. I don’t remember.

Eric: The Crest, where you threaten to quit.

Taz: I always threaten to quit.

Evan: Dead Head Studios show.

Eric: I fell in the drums. Phil was pissed!

Evan: Double Down –Vegas. That was my first show. The first was great; the second was out of control!

Taz: It’s Vegas baby!

Eric: This chick was in the lobby saying I wanna fuck this guy; I haven’t been fucked in two weeks. And hour later I walk into Taz’s room and he was in the bed with like 18 pillows, a bottle of Kettle Vodka, and sandwiches all over., his arms spread out like a king. Butlers were rolling shit in.

Taz: That was beyond funny.

Eric: The one thing I remember is Taz falling into the pillows, asshole!

Evan: The Tiki Bar was bad.

Eric: Dead Head was badass!

Taz: You were outta control!

Eric: No, I wasn’t!

Taz: We held it together.

Eric: Whatever.

Taz: Fucker!

How did Tony Fate come to join the band? (Met Tony once when he was touring with Sonny Vincent-he might remember the NON SHOW in Toronto and having to take care of the under age puking roadie-ha ha!)

Eric: We have had our eye on Tony for a while. We are still great friends with Mark Conway.

Have you found that old friends/fans have come out of the woodwork to continue supporting the band?

Eric: It has been amazing to see a lot of old school people. We just played the main stage Punk Rock Picnic in California and it was old home week. Love the new fans that appreciate the past.

Taz: That’s gay.

Evan: While we have had our share of people that remember the old days, a majority of people that are coming out to see us are new fans.

Do any of you still skate or are you prone to hip injuries (don’t worry I am not that far behind you in age!)

Eric: I tried to skate about 5 years ago and crashed and burned. I am not as hot as I remember I was.

Evan: We would love to but our health care providers will not sign off on the waivers.

Taz: We hang out with porn stars!

How important are lyrics in Symbol Six’s music?

Taz: They don’t mean shit!

Eric: They are everything possible, the root of all evil!

Taz: That’s why we play so loud, so you can’t hear them.

Evan: They are important to Eric.

Eric: Shut the fuck up!

With the current release was there ever a discussion of recording it in analog?

Eric: Yes but it’s too much money.

Evan: There are no studios with 24 track recording.

Tony: We would but who can afford it?

Taz: Highly over-rated, waste of time.

Evan: Unless you are going to release vinyl or magnetic tape there is no point because it will be converted to digital anyway.

Tony: No rebuttal

Taz: Have you ever noticed that the radio doesn’t have the same punch and hit like it used to?

Tony: New stuff that is put out is put out to its absolute limits so when they play the latest “hit”, they blast it really loud. Not as good as it the old stuff at all.

Eric: When we push Symbol Six, I want to go… BOOM! Like a roar!

Evan: So we master to the nth level.

Tony: Enough talk! It has been decided – it has to be mastered loud. There is nothing else to say about it.

Eric: I would bow down to whatever everyone wants but I wanna hear it loud!

Evan: Can I change the subject for a moment? There is a funny email going around about Paris Hilton, Nichol Ritchey, and Jessica Simpson.

Taz: Did you see how fat she got?

Evan: Anyway, The girls are supposedly gossiping about stuff but in a very low whisper. So people turn it up to hear it and it starts blaring “I am watching porn!” So if you are in an office it would blare it super loud!

Eric: That is badass! What a great idea!

Some criticism of the cd is that it doesn’t have the same sound or vibe of the debut release. My argument would be that you were 15 when you started the band. How could the sound still have the same energy or sound? You obviously have grown as people! Social Distortion for example didn’t go on to keep recording Mommy’s Little Monster!

Eric: There have always been bands that have stayed the same, we have always tried to expand our music and evolve. We are not afraid to evolve! We have never really been in any genre or bowed down to anyone. We will always be the outsiders, period.

Evan: It a natural progression for music to evolve based our mutual interest and as our abilities increase.

Taz: Right?! We sound way better!

Taz: We hang out with porn stars! They are scared to let us play with the “cool kids”.

On that note any good Mike Ness stories that won’t get you sued?

Taz: HA HA HA! (evil laugh) And yes I do but no comment. I know where the bones are buried on everybody.

How did the release on Dr.Strange come to fruition?

Taz: Eric blew Bill (Dr. Strange).

Eric: Short and sweet honey!

What is the future for Symbol Six? Any plans to record more material?

Taz: I am going to 7-11.

Evan: We are conducting this interview in the studio while we are recording our new album.

Eric: Look up and look far.

Phil: I was laying down tracks and now I am here to answer this fucking question. Arenas, stadiums, and dollar signs.

Eric: I don’t like the dollar signs remark.

Phil: Shut the fuck up Eric!

Does God exist? Do vegetarians secretly eat meat when no one is looking and would cunnilingus be considered eating meat? Is there truth in the rumor that Andy Kaufman is your roadie?

Evan: Oh God!

Taz: Didn’t you see the movie? And yeah, he plays guitar in Symbol Six. (Laughter all around) Cunnlingus? No that would be like licking a steak!

Eric: Agreed!

Evan: Latke Gravis?

Eric: The what? He use to roadie for us but we fired him because he could keep up with our humor and he wouldn’t eat meat.

Phil: He is a freak!

Eric: He is a freak, he was our freak, and he is in our blimp!

Last Words:

Phil: Eric, get your dick outta my ass!

Evan: It’s always gonna go homo.

Philco Raves (Downtown Recording Studio – Mystic Records Fame- Engineer): I have worked with literally hundreds of bands in L.A. in the last three years. I really have faith and belief in Symbol Six. More than any other band. They will go very far.

Ginger Kuroishi (Band’s manager): I absolutely love these guys on and off the stage. I hear many people claim to be the hardest working band in show biz but they have nothing on these guys. Everyday something is being done to propel and move everything forward. These guys live and breathe Symbol Six; it’s their life’s blood. Amazing stage presence and tight as a virgin’s twat.

Phil: This little sausage muffin thing is the worst thing I have ever had (end quote).

Just announced our release of The 1982 Posh Boy Sessions on 12″ vinyl on Dr Strange Records. 9 never released unreleased track. Also our Wikipedia page is now official. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symbol_Six_(band). New album in the works to be released sometime in July 2012.